Republicans debate Trump’s Mexico tariffs

WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans are raising concerns about President Donald Trump’s plan to impose 5 percent tariffs on all Mexican goods to give Mexico an incentive to do more to stop illegal immigration into the United States. During a closed-door lunch Tuesday with White House counsel Pat Philbin and Assistant Attorney General Steve Engel, some GOP senators raised the possibility of introducing a resolution to block the president’s move.

“There is not much support in my conference for tariffs, that’s for sure,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters after the meeting. If the Senate did pass such a resolution, there might not be enough votes to override a presidential veto. On a state visit to the United Kingdom, Trump told reporters that it’s “more likely that the tariffs go on.”

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have voiced support for the president. Rubio tweeted Tuesday that, while he hopes the situation at the border can be resolved without tariffs, “the law provides [the president] broad authority to control transactions with other nations if there is an unusual & extraordinary threat to the national security &/or economy of the U.S.”

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and other officials are in Washington this week to meet with their counterparts in the Trump administration ahead of the implementation of the tariffs on Monday. Ebrard said in a news conference that he believes the tariffs can be avoided and “by what we have seen so far, we will be able to reach an agreement.”